


Love's Fool

by fangirl98



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Cutting (implied), Depressed Harry, I Love You, M/M, Upset Louis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 07:46:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2765288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl98/pseuds/fangirl98





	Love's Fool

Louis usually scrolls down the list of flooding tweets in the blink of an eye, intermittently stopping at a few particularly interesting ones but never spares any serious attention to any, and enjoys a bit of relaxing time before their next concert kicks off.

 

But then this tweet happens to flip his world over.

 

@Louis_Tomlinson I saw cuts on Harry’s wrist. They look red, and seem pretty recent. So what’s happened to him? Is he DEPRESSED? A concerned 1D fan

 

Louis edges his face closer to the screen. His hands shake. He furrows his eyebrows. His lips depart in disbelief. Messy noises start buzzing in his head and ransacking the little sanity he has in the fatal fashion of military missiles. He reads it again and again and again. No matter how many times he re-read it, these words covered in black ink stand stubbornly still, never waver at his desperate attempt to shrug them off his mind and begin to loom larger and larger before Louis’ eyes.

 

It takes virtually a life time for Louis to properly digest the news and resumes thinking. He only remembers three words.

 

Harry. Cuts. Depressed.

 

Without even knowing it, Louis is already running in the hallway, towards the changing room, behind the backstage. Running like a mad man. Running like an alerted animal. Running like he doesn’t need to breath.

 

Louis needs only one thing right now, Harry. A perfectly unharmed Harry. If, if Harry is bleeding anywhere, Louis will be there to heal him in whatever way he can.

 

Rampaged into the changing section and slamming the door shut with all his might, Louis is greeted with three astonishing, questionable looks. Zayn, Liam and Niall almost jump at Louis’ unexpected, dramatic entrance and all turn to his direction, fairly shocked to see Louis leaning against the wall, his face reddened and dripping with sweat.

 

‘God damn it! Louis, you almost scare the hell out of us! What are you doing here? I thought you were out there preparing for the sound check already.’ Niall inhales and pats his chest in an assuring effort to collect his composure, his eyes clouded with doubts and perplexity.

 

‘Where is Harry?’ Dismissing Niall’s question, Louis blurts out his own in a piercingly loud volume with a detectable dose of fidgety and immediacy, which frightens the lads, for Louis has always been the chilled-out and cheerful one no matter how bad the circumstances may seem. Unless, unless there’s something that really upsets or worries Louis, and when it’s related to that curly member of the band, as it usually is, things get even more complicated.

 

‘Harry, Harry is in the changing room. He … he just got in. You know, this is out last concert so he thought he may wear something more decent and, special.’ Liam is the first one who dares to break the intimidating silence and answers Louis, while the two other lads are yet to recover from sheer shock, both clinging close to each other.

 

Louis elevates his eyes to meet Liam’s and lets out a half-relieving sigh, his fists finally unclenching. But he’s not fully convinced that Harry is safe and sound. He will not be fully convinced until he’s able to see Harry, standing and smiling in front of him. Louis can be overly skeptical when it comes to everything Harry and since that disturbing tweet is still forcefully pinned into his mind and threatening to spill over onto his body; Louis’ face remains grave and somber.

 

‘So, we’ll leave you two alone?’ Zayn mumbles and nudges the two other lads, his feet already moving towards the door.

 

Louis doesn’t speak. He merely nods and let the boys vanish from his sight before slumping down into a chair and gets sucked into his own jumbling thoughts, again.

 

Harry is a wall away from him. He could feel his strong build clumsily moving inside the confined cubicle, he could feel his head dropping slightly at the side wandering which jacket to wear, and he could feel his giant hands smoothing the wrinkles on his shirt. It is as if he could see Harry through the concrete wall and tuck him into his arms, his fingers rolling up his sleeves and crawling up his wrist, when some protruded, coarse scars sting him. Yes, the cuts, the bleeding cuts, the yet to be healed cuts, heinously sprawling on Harry’s delicate wrist and glaring at Louis with their evil existence. How, how is he going to deal with a depressed Harry who resorts to harming himself?

 

Louis gasps at the scary thought that is slowly eating him away, bite by bite, and realizes that tears are already streaming down his face.

 

Shit. He needs Harry right now. He needs his Harry so, so badly right now.

 

‘Harry, are you done in there?’ Louis hammers on the door violently and cries in desperation, the huskiness in his splintered voice alerting the person inside.

 

‘Louis? What are you doing here?’ Harry reflectively yells back and nearly drops the clothes hanger.

 

‘Please, Harry, come out. I need you right now. Please, just come out for me, okay, love? I’d do anything to see you now.’ Louis is getting paranoid. He pleads and begs and coaxes, for he knows no better ways to make Harry open the door than mindless chanting.

 

Shocked to find Louis crying, Harry unlocks the door in a second, only to find a devastated Louis hysterically sobbing and kneeling before him, his body trembling all over.

 

‘Lou, did something happen to you?’ Harry bents on his knees in front of him and reaches out his hands to cup Louis’ cheeks in such tenderness that it stuns and soothes the panicked boy. It feels real, so real. He finally gets Harry out of the totally enclosed room.

 

‘Lou, sh-h, don’t cry. Things are going to be fine, okay? I’m here with you. I will always be here for you. Now smile for me, okay? Boo Bear?’ Harry’s heart breaks a bit as he wipes away each tear rolling down the handsome boy’s face.

 

Louis feels so much safer in Harry’s presence. He tilts his eyes as the awfully unreal scene unravels before him, and is hypnotized by Harry’s breathtaking beauty. Louis couldn’t imagine, not even a minute in his life, imagine Harry hurting himself and being depressed, it’s just too much for him to handle, if such a flawless beauty slowly erodes before him and dies away.

 

‘Harry, did you cut yourself?’ Now quietly sobbing, Louis struggles to get his words out.

 

‘What?’ Harry almost screams, quite incapable of believing what he has just heard. So, he is the reason why Louis has been weeping like a distraught baby all this time?

 

‘There’s a tweet from a 1D fan saying that you are … you are depressed and there are … there are cuts on your wrist, fresh and bleeding.’ Louis exhales and is slowly getting back on the verge of yet another emotional breakdown, his nails digging hard into Harry’s arms in a force so unknowingly fierce that it almost peels off Harry’s skin.

 

‘Lou, calm down. Please, calm down, I beg of you.’ Harry’s face slightly distorts at the pain vibrating on his arms, but he knows it’s nothing when compared to the agony that Louis is suffering at the moment.

 

‘That fan probably just makes things up to get attention because Lou, I didn’t cut myself, I didn’t. Never have, never will.’ Harry stares into Louis’ eyes with genuine love and definite assurance, his thumb begins to draw tender circles on Louis’ collarbone.

 

‘But, but she said you are depressed.’ Louis has yet to give up on asking and almost chokes at the most torturing part of the sentence.

 

‘Oh, Louis, how can you, how can you even believe that?’ Harry puts up a wide grin on his face and continues, ‘When I’m with you, I’m always happy because you make me the happiest person in the world. The tour has been so amazing, Lou, it’s our first tour together, as best friends, as lovers, as the prouder than ever One Direction. I might be a bit upset because our concert is coming to an end but to say I’m depressed it’s just overrated. My life has changed so much since I first met you on X-factor, Louis Tomlinson, and from then on every day is to me a wonderful blessing. I wonder, Lou, I really wonder how I get so lucky sometimes.’ Harry holds Louis close to his body and softly whispers into his ears, his eyes purposefully shut to hold back the tears that are threatening to spill. 

 

Nestled into Harry’s arms, Louis just buries his head into his neckline and listens. Harry’s arms cling close to his arched back; his long, pearly fingers stretching wide and pressing hard against his steadily breathing body. Louis could feel Harry’s words playfully tickling his eardrums as if humming a lullaby and his thriving heartbeats just millimeters away from his own source of life.

 

Louis deliberately withdraws his hand from Harry’s back and slides down his forearm, as if trying to reach for something, the concrete proof that Harry is really whole and intact, not a part of him missing.

 

Harry knows Louis is searching for his wrist. So he subtly unbuttons the cuffs and rolls up his sleeve, meeting Louis’ rummaging hand half-way and placing it gently on the targeted spot.

 

Both of the boys remain silent, and they keep their eyes shut, finding each other in darkness, but feeling each other in spiritual clarity.

 

Louis traces his trembling fingers up Harry’s wrist with a racing breath and tightened face muscles, but his body soon slackens when the scalp of skin beneath his hands appears to be silky smooth and nowhere, nowhere near bleeding.

 

‘Now you believe me, Tomlinson?’ Harry rumbles hazily, his other hand caressing Louis’ neck indulgently.

 

‘Yes, Styles, I believe you. I believe that you are happy and healthy.’ As if trying to reassure himself, Louis’ fingers keep brushing back and forth on Harry’s wrist. He then flutters his eyelashes, crinkles his nose and smiles, ‘Screw that fan, she’s not even half as concerned about you as I do.’

 

Harry chuckles, gaily content that his Louis is back. He grabs Louis’ hand and helps him up. ‘Lou, let’s just go and sing our hearts out tonight?’

 

‘Of course we will, Harry.’ Louis squeezes his hand back and starts walking, both heading towards their living dream.


End file.
